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Sitemap ---- More interesting items/ideas for Bioshock Rapture MMORPG ------------------------------------------------------------ Part 14 . Tyranny Speaks : http://www.game-archivist.com/rapture/library_unity-and-metamorphosis.php When Sofia Lamb speaks in 'Unity And Metamorphosis' about tyrants and tyranny, it is funny that she makes a very good description of her own actions. Ryan at least had a War to win (to save that which HE built) which forced him to relinquish many of his principles (if temporarily). Read the rest of it and you learn that Sofia saw all of humanity as only consisting of the defectives she treated -- either willfully ignores the rest or her pronouncements are just more of her self-serving manipulation. --- Filtered Air -Guaranteed !!! : Mention of fishy/sea smell - you probably had in much of Rapture (even pre- 'fall') -- all those leaks arent artesian spring water after all -- made me think of air fresheners/filters that more affluent people might have for their homes/offices/restaurants/clubs (some of those neat machines we see all over the place...) Filters and filter service companies then as businesses for Rapture... Prestige is NOT having a home that smells like a fish-market or a dockyard. Ionizing filter technology was probably developed after the City's leak problem was made clear and alleviated the worst of the smell problem. Now if they ever figured out how to have the tapwater NOT taste fishy..... Just one of many issues for New Rapture to solve. --- Sofia Lamb's Gulag : There were Farms in Greenbelt (the farming area nearest Persephone that did not get cut off from her control), where a large number of her 'Family' toiled to feed all the rest. Farmers are practical people, so few joined her collective delusion and thus her 'farms' were not particularly efficient. But that was a perfect excuse for keeping so many of the 'Family' busy, while waiting to be 'sacrificed' to Sofia's mad scheme (actually MUCH easier to convince them under those circumstances). Various tonics and simpler methods were used to 'dumb the workers down' so that they would be less trouble and incapable of refusing their drudgery. Quotas for 'no longer living' Splicers to supply harvestable ADAM would be met by culling the most useless workers (all very systematically done, no doubt). Might be interesting for the MMORPG to show (let the Players explore) the working infrastructure of Sofia's domain (we only saw areas that were patrolled by her armed minions and some of her technicians and servant type sychophants, but not all the ones that provided resources that kept everyone alive). A common sight is a miserable 'worker' pushing a wheelbarrow full of collected excrement out collecting more for use as fertilizer for the farms. After 'the Rapture Family' started to disintegrate, these mind-numbed drones probably continued their tasks pretty much on automatic until being grabbed as pawns by the various new factions (everbody still has to eat and the farms were thus of strategic importance - with much fighting over them). (Hmm, mini-game - Sim-Sofialand -- can you manage to keep Lamb-land fed and the supply of 'volunteer' ADAM-donors flowing and prevent a revolt leading to the death of the beloved leader ??? -- Tropico style control devices, etc... Its got potential from some imaginitive Player to create). --- Sleeping with the Fishes (the glowing fishes) : The Abyss was used by Sofia Lamb to 'dispose' of people she didnt care for (as in anyone who wouldnt do what she said or anyone smart enough to resist her manipulations or people who saw her for what she really was). Seems a waste of 'tissue' but maybe it was one of those 'threats' that was used to terrorize her minions into doing her bidding. --- Seen in Ocean outside Fontain Futuristics (and advertised inside) : Oxy-Fill station ($5) used by ??? submarines/divers (Big Daddies recharge for free - somewhere). High pressure, if used by Daddies - as their suits operate at sea pressure (280 psi at 600ft) and those tanks have to hold a substantial charge. (Heh- Big Sisters use a 'credit card' to pay...) There would be (had been) many outside activities that would require divers - sign construction, sea industrial machinery, utility maintenance, window cleaners, window view landscapers, sea farmers, submarine repairs, Bathysphere Cable maintenance, Atlantic Express section crews, etc... which were not 'city jobs' (really bad if city workers had to pay for the air they use while doing their jobs... Fontaine probably would do something like that with his workers.) --- Game - Too many interface options to select quickly ??? Control tiles (interface design) : It would be useful to have a visual tile button option selectors on HUD (Player moveable positioned) for weapon selector (maybe even settable to different weapon+ammo type each) that would be mnemonic (you click on meaningful picture button with mouse and if it is already the weapon its smart enuf just to just change the ammo). Seriously this was done on PC games 15 years ago and what we get is lame console-isms (stepping thru options with keyboard presses) and apparently the the developers are too lazy to make the more useful PC control variant. Theres always plenty of space around the edges of the view screen to place them that doesnt interfere with the game view. Other selectors : - Orders to NPCs (use of a subset of skills they have - ex- tell 'Squirrely Pete to Scout Ahead') - Selection of 'Team' members (to then issue order to) - Tool selection (including healing materials) - lots more tools and manipulations in the MMORPG - Weapon mode would include switching to 'hand' for throwing things (and other hand related actions) --- Lase-ick surgery : Plan to use 'surgical' Lasers (research found in McClendon Robotics) as part of 'the Cure' to excise some non-critical tumors to speed 'Cure' body reconstitution (making less defective material to geneticly reconstruct/unscramble). Surgical expertise is needed (maybe a fun 'mini-game' could be made of part of this - a bit like the gunship game in 'Call of Duty MW' where you get directives to 'excise' target tissues while flying over the brain territory) "The smell of burning tissue in the morning ... smells like victory (for New Rapture)" --- Air-Tite Archives - Send, Receive, Store : Sealed Pneumo Capsule/Containers stored in a number of Holding Buffers mechanisms (see pneumo diagram - http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/3256/pneumo.png ) - Combination locks/seals/authorization codes - Special tracking and security verification - Limited access for facility Insurance and Assurance - Special secure service via a private pneumo system Bonded Terminals and Air-Tite local offices (private Pneumo line that bypases those 'light fingered' Jet Postal workers) 'Vault' storage areas still intact even after Lamb's reign was terminated (possibly some pilfered by Minervas Den staff who have those laser thingees to cut open armored Capsules) Contents likely to be useful later -- luxury goods and other such items with not that much use in restoring New Rapture directly, but will no doubt have historic value later (some potential use in exchanges with 'smugglers - some was ransacked for that purpose under the Wahl's administration of Minerva's Den --- who dealt with the 'Yacht Club' (discrete smugglers) more than a little). --- Pump Control Substation/Pump Station : Those huge pumps (Siren Alley) are rather large for normal structural leakage and Rapture pressure sections are not expected to flood. Smaller local pump units (like in the basement of each building -- and likely in redundant sets) would be more logical and require fewer/shorter pipes/small sumps. Large portable emergency pumps distributed throughout the city (transported where needed by the utility Trams or even submarines), with local ocean outlets and adjacent-section draw/drain pipes at strategic points, would be less expensive and more flexible (it would save literally miles of excessive piping and inefficient pumping). If a section did flood (catastrophic damage), it would flood so fast that no pumps could keep up (ocean pressure would be equivalent to a high power fire hose from every square inch of a hole). Such a large leak would first have to be repaired and then construction pumps would empty out the water. There would be no rush, as the destruction was already done - noone inside would have survived. Efficient 'normal' pumps can be made small and would NOT require HUGE sumps to drain. Centralized 'flood' pumps just dont make sense. The Dionysus park recovery woould have had pumping done by portable equipment - not some permanent huge machinery in an adjacent building. All buildings are subdevided into sections protected by self-closing doors (ie- Securis Doors) that help to isolate flooding. The doors are strong enough to hold back full sea pressure during a major leak situation. All utility conduits close (and major ones have independant protection) so that any possible leak is limited to small sections of any building. All building sections were designed with more than one access path (and/or protected escape paths) to prevent Citizens being trapped by a leak in any section. Automatic Pressure Doors can be overridden to allowed trapped Citizens to leave the damaged section -- if the large leak is found to be slow enough not to imperil the entire structure. Many buildings provided safety airlocks which also could fulfil this operation, with full safety. Would having evacuation drills periodicly make sense in old Rapture ?? Or would that kind of thing make people more anxious about where they really are 'under those crushing depths'. School children might have basic drills on where to go ('duck and cover' kind of thing). Maintenance and security personell would be trained to handle the situations should they arise (were very few incidents in old Rapture). New Rapture is a bit more precarious, with the Citizens being all too aware of what can happen and The City holds regular drills especially of the Auto-matic bulkheads and evacuation procedures. This subject would be yet another source of possible City related quests/missions for the MMORPG. --- Post BS2 Rapture - who might we know who is still there ??? : - Grace might still be in Pauper's Drop by the time of MMORPG - that is if after Lamb's demise she really had any influence other than handing out goodies that Lamb provided (the supply of which now either dried up or someone else has control of and likely would dispense with Grace Holloway's services). Where the food comes from - would require connecting/cooperating with other remaining minions of Lamb's little fiefdom to continue the flow of supplies. Apparently, if the 'evil' Jack decided to 'let her have it', then he only 'winged her'...... - Whether Jack let 'Stanley Poole' off, he was later found with a crushed head (apparently Lamb didnt exactly 'forgive him' for ruining Dionysus, as she supposedly said she did for helping turning Eleanor into a little ghoul). - Sander Cohen ?? Too crazy to live ? Died after a little too much absinthe and then encasing himself in a smothering coating of plaster just before passing out ???? (But you killed him ?? Who knows what weird combination of plasmids/tonics Cohen had in place of blood that might have made him a bit harder to actually kill ?? You didnt stick around to make sure he was dead, did you??) Appropriate pose for his 'death scene' ???? May have to have a contest for the Player Creators to produce some statues and have them voted on for 'the best' pose (and runner-ups can be placed in a new 'Art of the Insane' exhibit -- a City reminder of the degredation of spirit of the 'Splicers' disease). Rumors are that Cohen staged a 'Viking Funeral' for himself as he sealed himself and his great work off in Fort Frolic (will be fun to go back there and see....) Who else ??? Sinclair - maybe the only way out of his Sofia Lamb induced Big-Daddy-dom was to 'die' and be Vita-Chambered (One in his waiting Lifeboat would be perfect for his future Surface business plans). Gil Alexander - The Mummy Returns ... Now swimming 'free' in the Ocean ??? For all he being filled with ADAM he didnt himself seem to have much in the way of Plasmid powers. Ryan (already explained elsewhere) - Ryan Lives (shhhhhhh) .... Fontaine - Jack (or Tenenbaum) probably made sure he was fishfood (who knows, Ryan may have brough him back just to tell Fontaine to his face how he in the end was conned). Sofia Lamb comes back ??(escapee from a lunatic asylum -- as a patient .... electro-shock treatments didnt agree with her...) to be stepped on by a Big Daddy. Eleanor - surface might have been a disappointment (or too many governments after her ). Wales brothers? (including the little known third brother 'Shemp' ...) Schrodinger's Cat -- was frozen, not dead after all. A good 'Cure' process test subject. ---- Plasmid/Tonics we may or may not want to know more about (real) : ( http://bioshock.wikia.com/wiki/Predefined_Plasmids ) - Diseased Excretions - Chemosynthesis - Glowing Body - Fast Twitch - Gas Vent Regeneration - Gatherer Mimic - Photosensitive Secretions - Show Me The Cones - Deconstructionist - Improvisational Genius - Tile Rotation --- 'Good' MMORPG Game design : One thing I would definitely not have happen - being locked out of content because of some mini-game (frustration like in GTA with buggy/sloppy/incompetant porting to the PC of mini-games, and at least one mission's activation blocked), with the failure to complete them resulting in blocking a whole chains of missions). So, the standard design should be multiple avenues of attaining a positive result/prerequisite for a prerequisit quest/mission (similar to in BS1/BS2 with buying out or doing an 'auto' for Hacks). --- The Great Vita-Chamber Hack mini-game : 'Hack' (help build/modify) the Vita-Chamber in 'the Clinic' to improve the 'Cure' Process (now with 20% less excruciating ADAM withdrawl pains !!!). Similar in form to the BS1 pipe-laying 'hack' type mini-game (rewiring it) -- except that the pipe grid is 1000x1000 and there are 2000 flow inputs and outputs (circuits). You are tasked with completion one little part (circuit) of the project, and you may have to go obtain required special parts (new tile types) to complete the task. Would have a much larger variety of components (over-and-under bypasses, valves, impellors, junctions, Flux-Capacitors, etc...) Also will be a larger variety of hazards and obstacles (higher skills and research will help). You also have to work AROUND other peoples work as the circuitry progresses (forcing more and more rerouting). Alternate operation (task) for a Player mission is to trace some 'circuitry' and find and fix a error/break or problem in the complicated/twisted wire/chemical maze. --- Buildings with style for Rapture : The Shandor building from GhostBusters -- stylish top levels tiered with window 'patios' on each stepped level. --- Idea for (some) Player's "Start" into the MMORPG (maybe as a partial interface learning tutorial) : Player decides to quit their miserable brutish life of a Splicer, after hearing the propaganda coming out of 'New Rapture' about 'the Cure', and then journey thru 'the Ruins' to reach something better. Basic controls, maneuvering, inventroy management, melee fighting (maybe minor Plasmid use - that will be lost in the 'cure') New Rapture has people who are skilled in "talking Splicers home", but who also have to be careful with the potentially dangerous Splicers (who might be trying to 'scam' the system). Strong security measures without 'spooking' the potential new Citizens... Once the the Splicer's journey "home" is done, then the next stage of the 'Cure' begins -- which can be a whole nuther journey to experience. The 'journey' shouldnt be a loophole allowing Players to play Splicers continually, so some 'compulsion' will move them along the path of being 'Saved' (nothing we havent experienced in the Solo games). Propaganda may mention/recommend 'bringing' something valuable to assist the Splicer's future home and the Starter Adventure may have opportunities for such. ---- My Big Daddy hunt trophy room : http://www.vulcaniasubmarine.com/LEON%20LYONS_files/image008.jpg With a few of the more unusual ones http://www.vulcaniasubmarine.com/LEON%20LYONS_files/image010.jpg ---- Idea for 'The Cure' which all Players go thru on joining the MMORPG with their one character : Getting the 'treatments' and having hallucinations of you past miserable life as a Splicer (acted out) with various nightmarish apparitions of things you faced (thru a Splicers warped mind) or others just products of your madness (I was impressed by the Little Sisters delusional world in BS2). Numerous different/varying sequences (with more being created by Players - imagine it thru the eyes of a Splicer instead of a mostly normal Jack) would be stitched together (creations including the choreographed stage directions, all with proper terrain settings and props). Transition of the Player's twisted/mutated/tumoresque form back to a normal human shape... Werewolf stop motion like in those 30s monster movies ??? Simulated Brain scans showing progress and commentaries by the doctors through the process (lots weird effects you can do with shader scripting on the GPUs). --- Ryan is still honored in New Rapture : "Ryan built Rapture and those parasites that were stealing it for themselves had not. Rapture was almost destroyed by their rot and poison. But Rapture is not dead and will recover and will be stronger having gone thru its tempering. " --- On a statue in the New Rapture City Center. Creativity, Independence, Commerce, Liberty and Ascendency --- "The Abyss Elevator" '''- Big Daddies (and some purpose-built subs) can withstand the pressure down to the much greater depths in the Abyss (4000+ foot) -- what is down there that you would want to go there for (hopefully NOT an alien spacecraft - not this genre)??? - The Elevator descends down to various levels of the Abyss - Bioluminescent organisms - alot of research was done on these in Rapture, resulting in many lower power BioLume lights. - Sea Slug harvesting (even the wrong types are used for research and some new technologies) - An unique ecological zone (the Abyss is shielded by the volcano sides and warmed by the nearby geothermal activity). Some odd ancient lifeforms were starting to be found. - Became a tourist 'adventure' with a 'fail-safe' elevator capsule (which only failed once on that last trip...) - Rapture standard diver hardsuits limited to 1000ft depth (used in the City environs) and special (expensive) 'Deep Suits to 6000ft (which Big Daddies can also withstand). - Fortunate that The Abyss didnt turn into Rapture's "garbage dump" (probably simply because it was far enough away to be inconvenient.) - Still many mysteries to be explored 'down there'. --- '''Population Size of Rapture : Lots of speculation over the years in the forums/wikis -- Rapture's size from a few thousand (too small for what we are shown) to 200,000 (biggg - how could it be built with Ryans resources ??) and 7.5 million people (totally rediculous). The book/novel says 20000, which is much more reasonable - sufficiently large to have more than a few elites and also the people who would support them (and themselves) and the needed spectrum of know-how/skills for a proper city. Considering the raw materials required to be 'self-sufficient', I would double that size to fill in the population outside the City itself needed to support the 'urban' population. The 20000+ number is reasonable when considering 'the Vanishing' (and the chaos acrossmuch of the World post-WW2). --- Security Bot upgrades : You can add, train and upgrade equipment/skills for your NPC 'Team', so why not do the same for any Security Bots you manage to get your hands on? - Upgrades (with limitations, trade-offs and consequences -- they still have to be able to fly after all so cant turn into some rediculous juggernaut -- though some players may try) armor, weapons, sensors, tools, maneuverbility... You may have to do alot of Research and find/fabricate many new parts. Often it is not a case of an 'Upgrade', but instead of adapting the devices features to your needs. - Because Security Bots are hard to come by, you will be very interested in retrieving ones that get disabled and repairing them (or at least retrieving the wreckage to rebuild another one). They can be very useful in some situations that warrant risking them. --- Those 'Lockbox' thingees : Are there mysterious little gnomes that drag corpses away yet leave the useful possessions behind in these small matal boxes ?? And then once you take all the goodies from the Lockbox, they take those boxes away as well?? Maybe the bodies get hauled away to Vita-Chambers to be reconstituted ??? That would explain why there seems to be an endless supply of Splicers when you hang around a level long enough. Its as if the bodies are pulled into the ground (Im sure some kind of ADAM/Plasmid related explanation can be made). . Even Big Daddies and Big Sisters get this treatment. Might those scientists have actually found a use for the 'Little Brothers' and this is their fate (do they look like those little goons in Phantasm)???? Makes you think ..... --- Dionysus Park Opening Gala ??? : Opening ?? Was it previously only open to Sofia's 'artsy-fartsy' clique that she was manipulating -- and THAT banner was announcing a 'Public' opening, so that her 'message' could be applied to more of Rapture's citizens (even though she was in Jail at the time... somebody was paying to keep it operating). So all the Fail-Safe doors failed ??? With all the bigwigs present (rich 'art' aficionados) that drowned, there would have been a major investigation into the 'failures' to find out how safe the rest of the city was, which used the same safety systems (the place has MANY Securis doors). Even with the alleged 'cult' activity to blame, the drowning of an entire building would have been a serious issue to the people and leaders of Rapture. Perhaps (or most certainly) divers were sent in to determine the cause (and retrieve the corpses), but Ryan didnt see any need to recover/restore Lamb's propaganda tool or its 'art'. Sofia Lamb said that Dionysus Park was her home. Where in there did she live (would have been interesting to see what it looked like). So many doors that dont open (actually like many of the places we went in the games, we only saw a third of the actual building interiors). For the MMORPG (when the BS1/BS2/DLC/MP places are recycled), all that additional interior space would be filled in -- since in the MMORPG you can open/unblock/repair those plot-closed doors to reveal what is behind them. In BS2 you see lots of bodies floating around outside some of the windows (the viaducts particularly) - its been 7+ years since the Tragic flooding, so instead they must be more of Sofia's recent 'disposing' of contrary individuals (and to think all Ryan used to do was jail them). Oh and why no art visible in the water from those Viaducts ???? I would have thought that would be a perfect setting to display sculpture (and/or bubble and light artsy 'stuff') -- its exactly the kind of linear museum viewing venue they spend tons of money to create -- and here its all wasted. Perfect locations for a half obscured 'Ryan Sucks' exhibit - maybe Stanley was too busy partying to finish it all for the Gala Opening. --- Luxury Passenger line : Sinclair calls the Atlantic Express a 'Luxury Passenger line' which implies more mundane Hoi polloi traffic would use some other method (like Trolleys). Perhaps the 'Short Line' thru and Amusement Parks and an Art Museum 'Park' and the Fontaine Futuristics attractions (and the Abyss Overlook end-or-the-line) made that one line 'luxury'. The low level of traffic just did not warrant the expense of retrofitting 4 Bathysphere stations. Perhaps the AE did offer deluxe accomodations as an option, much as the Bathyspheres later did. --- New Splicer types : - Clown Splicer - Tries to make you laugh and while you are groaning at its lameness it tries to knife you - clowns have always been sinister and clown splicers even moreso. - Coward Splicer : Throws everything it owns down on the ground and runs away to cower in some hole. - Kamikaze Splicer... (arent they all??) - Midget Splicer - harder to hit because of its small size (one too many 'Reducer' tonics ???) - Chainsaw Splicer - you thought the guys with those hooks were bad ... - Pizza Delivery Splicer -- since many various blogs/postings on websites have 'suggested' additional splicer types (mostly endless recombinations of weapons/plasmids and known types), THIS splicer delivers you an exhorbitantly expensive pizza (too many anchovies) and an optional kitchen sink if you request it. - Two Headed Splicer - maybe a bad joke on Steinman's part ?? (still alive, so maybe two heads ARE better than one ???) --- I am the Ryan !!! : Forum Posting : "It wouldve been cool if they did do a Bioshock game based on Andrew Ryan, like you play as A.R. as a young adult, before he goes beneath the Atlantic, and the game could finish off to "The New Year" where Rapture went to hell." Not sure what kind of plot you would have (it wouldnt be 'Bioshock') as he was an immigrant who got lucky and became a rich industrialist and basically had his own way up thru the building of Rapture and up to the time he had the showdown with Fontaine. Maybe they could have him have a secret identity and go out at night to fight crime.... or something. --- That plugboard thingee in BS1 (on that machine in Ryan's Central Control with the self-destruct activation) : Its design makes it kinda hard to make changes without a ladder .... At least it doesnt have a 'Fontaine Futuristics' label on it like the computer terminal in the room just before you speak to Ryan (yet another industry that Fontaine had spent his criminal/treasonous smuggling money on). Connections with wires/cables going between certain plugs - the usual use of that arrangement is to make changeable connections between data lines going to a selection of devices/ports. If you convert the shape of those wire lines to old Norse, you find that it says 'Return I Will' (and the red dots spell out the same thing in Sanskrit) and conveniently there is an active Vita-Chamber in the adjacent room (and they were ALL set for Ryan). --- Transit Structures : Long Viaducts seen outside Adonis Resort on Skydome (exterior window view) connecting building almost like raised highways. They look different than the AE tracks structures - the monorail trains hang down from the single rail (- maybe just poorly drawn). Many would be way too long to walk - properly they should be an elevated part of the Trolley system. Others seen, connect between building at many different levels (some very high up side of buildings -- not overly convienent as a general transit path (as a real-world sidewalk would be at a common level) Other Viaducts (as seen from Fontaine Futuristics) look from a distance to be AE tracks (versus a water sealed Trolley 'viaduct'). The ones seen from Paupers Drop were obviously the Atlantic Express track (Mk1 type) structures. --- Creativity - to the cubed power.... : Player created Quests dont actually have to have 'Loot' or particularly 'High' Adventure, just 'fun'. I could imagine one choreographed scene emulating "Singin in the Rain" (near a big water leak of course) -- scene for at least one deranged Splicer or a big Daddy (where do you get an umbrella in Rapture?? - actually might be/have been a good market for them post-Kashmir when maintenence became more spotty) ---- maybe a ghost play ??? Untold stories of insanity/weirdness/humor for the viewers enjoyment (when it comes down to it, arent most MMORPG quests some lame story and then just more boring slaughter of 'orcs' ???).... --- . . . .